NOTEBOOK / Johnson stands humbly corrected

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, April 10, 2003

Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson said Wednesday that he changed the club's policy on past champions playing the Masters because he had gone too far, and was guilty of "over-fixing" a problem.

Johnson cited his belief that tournament founders Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts only wanted past champions to compete as long as they were competitive,

which is why last year he sent now-infamous letters to some past champions encouraging them not to play again. The reaction was just short of outrage from old champs, and Gary Player, specifically, was intensely critical of Johnson.

When Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer also privately expressed their concerns to Johnson, the chairman knew he had blown it. Palmer said that when he was younger, he played with 1935 champion Gene Sarazen, and remembers it as one of the special experiences of his career.

"I think if you take some of the things that make tradition away from the Masters, then you just make it another golf tournament," Palmer said.

NO POLITICS: An entrepreneur on Washington Road is selling "I Support Hootie" buttons, but Johnson said he didn't want any politics on the grounds of Augusta National. "Anything like that," Johnson said, "we ask the patron to cover them up, or remove them or check them."

QUOTABLE: Nicklaus says he supports Tiger Woods' bid for three consecutive Masters: "I always feel like records are made to be broken. And if a man is good enough to win it three times in a row, more power to him. Congratulations. "

BRIEFLY: Tee times are delayed 30 minutes today, due to weather conditions . . . Padraig Harrington and David Toms tied for the championship of the traditional par-3 contest on Wednesday, a jinx. No player has ever won the par- 3 and the Masters in the same year.